Although every day is a farm work day here, Monday is Dan's day off, and the day we concentrate on farm work.
We got in from Washington DC late Saturday night, and were back up early to be in church Sunday morning. Followed by a softball meeting, then home for animal chores, naps, and back to church in the evening, with a spaghetti dinner following the service. (the youth group is raising money for summer camp)
So by the time we got home Sunday night, it was late, and we were still a little tired from our trip! Not to mention, still packed. (my phone has been dead all day, since the charger was still packed in the van - sorry if I missed your call or text today!) Sunday nights the children are working on time management skills, so we planned out our weeks and went over our schedule as a family, then watched the Amazing Race, before bed.
Full well knowing that with the temps scheduled to hit 90 here today, we would be getting up early! I got up a little after 5:00 to begin my day, and had eggs made for breakfast at 6:30 when the others came down. It's the only way to work in this heat - start early, nap in the afternoon, and go back out to work more in the evening. :-)
Dan's day began with moving the chicken coops. We were given a "new" (it's really old! I love it!) one last fall, and we are moving the hens to it finally. The larger of our old ones will be a goat shelter now. I had a home school meeting here at the farm last week, and apparently some of the 22 children here were playing on the tractors. All the batteries were dead, and the key was missing for the big one... Dan was not having a good start! He did get one of the tractors pull started, and we can replace the key, so all is well, but it was a rather rough morning!
The boys have a virtual class on Monday mornings, so they came in for class, and then went back out to help as soon as class was over. They removed temporary fencing from out back around the pond, helped put railroad ties under the "new" chicken coop to make it taller, and then put up step in electric fence panels in the front yard, so that the goats can eat the grass there. Goats grazing in my front yard. Unreal. but I can't see wasting fuel and time to mow something that the goats need to eat - we are so overcrowded, if we don't get them on more grass, they will need more hay! The fence will come down tonight or tomorrow, and be moved to another area.
We have had 28 baby goats born here in April. The latest were born last night, a set of twins. There are a couple more nannies still pregnant out there. :-) Peabody - our male peacock - has been dancing nonstop. He is beautiful, and his pen is right beside my clothesline, so I've been able to watch him all day. So far the female has not laid any eggs, but we are still hopeful! The goose should hatch out her babies soon. We moved the youngest calf to the big pasture today - he's weaned off milk. After we get the pen cleaned and re bedded, we will get another calf and start the process again.
Meg and i started our day in the garden - rotating it with laundry. I try to do all of our laundry on Mondays - I think the kids are more careful about tossing things in the wash if they know mom will NOT wash them until next week. (I will wash work clothes more often, as needed) Sunday night we sorted the laundry, and I put the first load in teh washer, so pretty much the first thing I did when I came downstairs this morning was hang laundry and start another load. I really want a wringer washer, but they were all well over $200 at the Amish sale this spring. I'm not willing to pay that!
In the garden we have asparagus shooting up, and some of the potato plants are coming up, as well as the leaves on the horseradish. Sage, chives, stevia, lavender and thyme have all come back from last year. Today I moved the oregano outside as well. Spinach and some of the leaf lettuce I planted two weeks ago was up full enough to be thinned today. I planted more onions, beets, and lettuce. I would have planted the carrots and green beans, but that ground was not turned over yet.
two of the bleeding hearts came back - even though the pigs got to them last year. One has small blooms already. The primrose is blooming as well. Meg and Matt went back to the pond and dug up three tulip bulbs that were blooming back there - i don't know how they got there, but they sure are pretty! The hostas and peonies are shooting up too.
For lunch today I tried fixing dandelion greens, using two different recipes. One was traditional bacon dressing, one was with garlic and pecans. Both were edible, but not something deemed to be a family favorite. We did enjoy the experience of trying them - largely because there was also cake, hard boiled eggs, sandwiches, and cheeses to eat with them - so no one went hungry.
In the middle of the day, while Dan napped (he has to work tonight) I took Luke to the orthodontist. He still has braces. Still will for awhile. Poor kid - he's had them over 8 years now. He took me to ritas for a treat (well, I drove, but he paid. Fair enough for me!) and then we stopped to pick up more clothespins, as I kept running out today.
I came home to nap, only to be interrupted by him calling to ask me to bring him his boots, which he forgot when he went to work at Gary's today. How he forgot his boots is beyond me - but he's normally a responsible kid, and I didn't want his sneakers ruined, so I took them to him. He helps with the milking at the farm next door most days.
Meg and Matt spent the late part of the afternoon removing the pool cover, skimming the pool, and helping to set up the ladder and filter. It will take awhile to actually get the water clean, but at least it's started!
In the evening it was back to the weeding, and chicken coops. Dan repaired the manure spreader, and repaired a shelter roof in the pasture, after repairing the tractor this morning.. seems like there is always a lot of repairing to be done around here. Then he tilled the strip garden for me. Most of my gardening is in raised beds - I love square foot gardening - but I do keep one traditional strip garden for carrots, beans, and broccoli- because I need so many of them,.
Peas are planted out as a crop, with a tractor. Dan planted 5lbs of them this year, and they are just coming up through the ground now.
When Luke returned from working at Gary's, after a short break, he began loading the old christmas trees in the pasture onto a trailer on a 4 wheeler and hauling them out to the woods. Each year the boy scouts collect all the christmas trees in town, as a service project. They bring them here, and dump them in our pasture - the goats LOVE them. This time of year they are completely stripped of all bark and needles, and we take them out to the fence row so they do not impede pasture grass growth.
The last load of laundry went on the line at 8pm - as it was getting dark. It's farm work clothes, overalls and things, that can come off the line tomorrow. Meg and I ended our day trying to bottle feed the two new babies that are not doing well. We are worried they won't make it through the night, they are just not eating. :-( Dan took over and tube fed them, hoping that food in their bellies will get them through the night. This nanny survived the fire here at the farm a few years back, and should NOT be bred. However, I have yet to find a fence that will hold her when she decides she wants bred... so again this year, she has had babies. With bottle feeding, her babies have survived, but these are just not doing well, and I am not sure they will. Our farrier is looking for a companion goat for one of her older horses, I am hoping she will consider this nanny. She does not want babies, nor a billy, and she wants a friendly goat.. you can't get much friendlier than this one, and at her farm, I would not have to worry about her being bred again.
In my free time today I held baby goats, & finished the book "Little Heathens" about rural life in the 30's, which makes my life sound down right lazy. I watched Meg and Matt ride their bikes in the pasture - although I have no idea why they wanted to ride there.
Now it's the end of the day, and i can head to bed in line dried jammies, to a freshly made bed with line dried sheets, knowing that I put in a good days work. Life is good!
Farm Work Monday
Monday, April 27, 2009
Becoming the Woman God Wants Me To Be
Sunday, February 1, 2009
I started this book, and I will finish it. It's been moved to my "to read" list, and not really part of my devotions. I'm so disappointed in this book. I feel like it was a great entrepreneurial move for her - to release a book like this in time for a near year, when women are craving a "fresh start" and want to do better in their walk with God, and improve themselves.
Like an infomercial, it preys well on the vulnerable.
And it's a lot like an infomercial. I keep expecting to find a line of products to go with this book. A rebounder (according to her, the ONLY way you can "scientifically" lost fat cells) cleansing diet (vegetables and water, but she gives no real information on this, just tells you to do it) unsweetened cranberry juice and lemon juice you are to drink large amounts of, "cleansing baths" to remove toxins.... and the websites given in the back are often no longer in existence, or the links have changed to promote products - there is no real medical information given, just lots of... commercials. Except for her suggestion that we all go to one of those places where you make all of your meals in advance, with the company doing all the prep work and planning for you. There we finally get a list of websites that work, and information to find the companies and locations.
THIS is her suggestion for "becoming the woman God wants me to be"? Bounce on a high priced recounder (she warns against settling for a cheap trampoline) drink lemon and cranberry water, take baths to remove toxins (not dirt, she's very concerned with all the toxins in our body) and go spend extra money to have someone else do most of the meal work for us.
Huh. Somehow these suggestions never came up in any other discussion of Proverbs 31 I've ever seen before. Yet she uses part of that chapter as the "basis" for each chapter.
I'm this detailed in my criticism, due to my own guilt. I "promoted" this book to friends, personally and online through facebook and my blog. Granted, my influence is not that huge - but the fact that I promoted this book in any way shape or form, to only one person, anywhere, distresses me. I apologize.
That all said - I do know women who are getting a lot out of this study. For some, it's just the renewed discipline of reading their bible and doing their devotions each morning. Some are actually following her suggestions.
I will finish this book. I think the lesson I will get from this study is to be more careful what I get into, and what I promote personally, even to my small circle of influence. And that I have to finish what I start!
paper mache volcano
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Matt and I made this as part of his science class this week... we still want to add the dinosaurs, then we will set it off. :-)
99 cent roses
Roses were 99 cents at Aldi when I was in this week! This is two bunches, so technically this is $1.99 roses. :-)
Some Quilting...
a small quilt top I am working on for the quilting class at the library.
a flannel strip quilt that I really need to complete!
My new toy...
I was looking for a dust buster, and found this on clearance instead... it's a broom with a vacuum built in! I love it! It's not super powerful, but it really does a nice job on the throw rugs and on light dirt!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Donna Partow is doing a 90 day online jumpstart program based on her book Becoming The Woman God Wants Me To Be. I picked the book up at Borders this week and am looking forward to the study. There will be online videos, downloadable mp3s, weekly call ins.. all based from her facebook group. (search "90 Day Jumpstart to a New You" on facebook to join)
survey for $20 gc
Sunday, December 28, 2008
LONG survey -
Thank you for your participating in our survey about personal care products! Your responses to our survey will help us meet the needs of consumers worldwide. We have purchased the gift card that you indicated as your choice while taking the survey and will be assembling and mailing those envelopes to you within the next week. We have not yet held the drawings for those that successfully completed the survey/those that referred others to our survey site, as we are still in need of a few more men and women to take our survey before we close the survey. In particular, we still need women between the ages of 18 and 40 and men between the ages of 18 and 50 to complete our survey. So, if you can think of others who would like to participate, please forward the survey links to them.
When forwarding the link to friends, family and neighbors, remember to tell them to enter your name as the person who told them about this survey opportunity, so that you’ll receive another entry into the $100 gift card drawing. (Heather Truckenmiller)
Survey for females:
This survey can be accessed by clicking on the following link or copying and pasting it into your web browser:
http://deploy.ztelligence.com/start/index.jsp?PIN=13AUJ6VNQSNHE
Survey for males:
This survey can be accessed by clicking on the following link or copying and pasting it into your web browser:
http://deploy.ztelligence.com/start/index.jsp?PIN=13AUJ6VNUZ82C
Tia Maurer
Personal Care Products Research – Procter & Gamble
Cookie Plates!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Each year we fill plates of cookies and take them around to all the neighboring farmers that we have worked with over the year. We take some to family too. This year it was 19 plates.
Next year I want to find a pretier way to package them!
Meg and I were baking all week. The pretzels were dipped in white chocolate, then sprinkled with crushed peppermint or wintergreen candies. They are my favorite! This is all that is left -
More Texting Things...
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Hans Christian Andersen’s Christmas (mp3 audio) - In this excellent holiday episode of the classic radio series “Father Knows Best”, father Anderson reads the kids the story of fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen’s Christmas. This is a delightful, heartwarming story. Give it a listen… your family will really enjoy this! Length: 30 minutes
Click here for today’s resource
